Gellert Grindelwald
|Death = c. March 1998 Nurmengard |Blood Status = Pure or Half-Blood |Other Names = |Family = Bathilda Bagshot (great-aunt) |School = Durmstrang Institute |School House = |Attendance = c. 1895 - expelled c. 1889 |Occupation = * Leader of Grindelwald's army (bef. 1926 - 1945) * Percival Graves' occupations (In 1926) ** Auror ** Director of Magical Security ** Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement |Wand = Elder Wand (c. 1900s - 1945) |Patronus = |Animagus = |Boggart = |Loyalty = }} Gellert Grindelwald (c. 1884 - c. March 1998) was a pure or half-blood wizard who was once a very powerful and dangerous Dark wizard. Even centuries later, many considered that even Tom Riddle would never surpass Grindelwald in terms of skill and power. Grindelwald fought for nearly 50 years in order to obtain international wizarding dominance in defiance of the International Statute of Secrecy for what he defined to be "For the Greater Good". Expelled from Durmstrang Institute for dark experiments, he later achieved ownership of the Elder Wand. He committed many crimes in the war for control of the wizarding world with the help of the army he had founded. He adopted the symbol of the Deathly Hallows and founded Nurmengard. Grindelwald was eventually defeated by an old friend, Albus Dumbledore in 1945 and was locked up in Nurmengard until he was killed by Voldemort many centuries later. Biography Early life and education Gellert Grindelwald was born in around 1884 in an unknown place. He was the great-nephew of Bathilda Bagshot. He attended Durmstrang Institute and became very drawn to Dark magic championed by the school. He excelled in many fields of magic and began experimenting with the Dark arts. The experiments involved hurting other people, and eventually even Durmstrang would not enable the dark nature of Gellert at their school. They expelled Gellert from the school at the age of 16, by which point he had developed a fascination with magical artefacts. Friendship with Dumbledore Grindelwald then spent time wandering in search of the knowledge and power of the Deathly Hallows. By the summer of 1899 (not long since he was expelled), he went to Godric's Hollow in England when he found out it was the former home of the original owner of one of the Deathly Hallows. Grindelwald's great-aunt lived in Godric's Hollow, and she let him live with her for the summer. She provided very minimum supervision and a home of many books and documents about the magic world and it's artefacts which suited Grindelwald very well. In the summer, he befriended Albus Dumbledore, a teenager who had a lot in common with Grindelwald. They both had substanial knowledge and magical power, and at the time had the same ambitions and spent a lot of time debating. The two became very good friends in their mutual search for the Deathly Hallows which they hoped would bring them the coveted immortality and invincibility, and it then became known that Gellert and Albus both opposed the International Statute of Secrecy and hoped to found a new order that overturned that law and gave them complete dominance over the international wizarding society, electing powerful and wise witches and wizards in power and putting the muggles in their place. Grindelwald had long hated the fact that witches and wizards had to cower in secrecy from muggles in a way akin to fear, and had the idea that the law protected and benefited the muggles and not the magic world which people claimed. He adopted the slogan proposed by Albus saying "For the Greater Good", which explained the actions they intended to make in order to achieve their goal of giving power back to the magic world. Unfortunately for Grindelwald, Albus would not go with Gellert in the end. He had adopted the same goals of Grindelwald motivated by the fact that he had a younger sibling, Ariana Dumbledore who was brutally attacked by muggles which left her with no control of her magic. It broke the family and led to their mother, Kendra being killed in an incident when Ariana had no control of her magic, and it left Albus and their brother Aberforth to look after Ariana. Albus also had other ideas of what to do with the Deathly Hallows, wanting to put the family back together again while Grindelwald wanted to make an army of the dead. Aberforth found out about Grindelwald's plans, and he was angry that Albus would consider both leaving the family or taking the poorly Ariana with him for personal goals, which he felt was selfish. He neither approved or condoned their plans, and it eventually led to an argument between Albus and Aberforth. The argument enraged Grindelwald who used the Cruciatus Curse on Aberforth. Albus was angry about that, and he began duelling Grindelwald. Aberforth then joined in and during the ensuing chaos, Ariana was killed. Grindelwald accepted part of the blame for her death, and fled the country with the help of a portkey arranged by Bathilda who never saw him again, without Albus, , who from then on, would begin avoiding Gellert out of fear that he knew which one of them had the wand which killed Ariana. Albus would later changed the opinions he had and find he and Grindelwald to be in the wrong for the plans they made. Gaining power Grindelwald continued to pursue the Deathly Hallows and eventually located the Elder Wand, then owned by a well known wandmaker. He broke into the workshop, subdued the wandmaker with a spell and then took the wand. Grindelwald had probably found out he would not have to kill the former owner in order to gain the loyalty of the wand, which many others believed. Grindewald at one point, adopted the sign of the Deathly Hallows for the army he would begin founding. By 1926, he had not only founded the army but he had high numbers of people supporting him. He had considerable power and knowledge, he owned the Elder Wand and he began attacking magical communities in many places in Europe in an effort to take control of them, bringing the attention of the muggle world to the odd events happening from their perspective. He brought the attention of countries further away from Europe, including the United States of America, whose own newspapers even informed their own wizarding community of Grindelwald's crimes. International hunt The international magic world formed a witchhunt for Grindelwald who managed to evade them many times, and at one point evaded Heinrich Eberstadt, who was that close to capturing him that the President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America in 1926, Seraphina Picquery commented that he let Grindelwald slip away. By then, Grindelwald had set sights on America because he believed the odd attacks happening in New York City to be the work of an Obscurial which he hoped would be a weapon for him in the war for world domination. Grindelwald had a vision of the Obscurial, and connected it to Credence Barebone who he set about manipulating by promising him a better life if he helped him find out who the Obscurial was. He set about capturing Percival Graves, the right-hand man to the President, an Auror who was Head of Magical Security and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in order to achieve that. He then subdued him and took on the appearance of Graves. One day, Newt Scamander let loose a number of magical animals by accident from a suitcase. When Tina Goldstein, a former Auror claimed during a meeting with Seraphina and "Graves", she knew it was Newt's suitcase of animals causing the problems in New York, Seraphina sent her away thinking she was making it up to save face. Grindelwald had other ideas and went to speak with her to find out whether she was telling the truth. She opened the suitcase but they found out it was the wrong suitcase and he left the same thing Seraphina had. Tina later found the actual suitcase and when Newt and Jacob Kowalski went in the suitcase, she took it back to Seraphina and Grindelwald then holding a meeting for the International Confederation of Wizards about the death of Senator Shaw. They blamed one of Newt's animals for killing him but he unnerved everyone by telling them only an Obscurial would have managed to kill the Senator. Seraphina denied an Obscurial was in America and sent them away, but Grindelwald knew it was the truth and was intrigued by Newt. He interrogated Newt and found out about the Obscurus he kept in the suitcase, and then claimed Newt was conspiring with Grindelwald in order to find out whether he would join him. Newt claimed he would never join Grindelwald, and in order to cover tracks and keep people from finding out about the Obscurial, he sentenced Newt and Tina to death. However, Newt managed to escape and save Tina, fleeing with the help of the Swooping Evil. Escape from America When Grindelwald found out Mary Lou Barebone was killed by an Obscurial, he approached Credence and asked him to track down Modesty Barebone, who Grindelwald claimed had to be the Obscurial. But when he found her, Grindelwald cruelly put him down and would not follow through on the promises he made, claiming he was no longer important. It upset him to the point in which he became the Obscurial in front of a shocked Grindelwald. Grindelwald then backtracked on shoving him away moments earlier, and began promising him a life among the ranks of the army he had founded but it made him angry and he rampaged throughout New York. He continued trying to track him down, eventually crossing paths with Newt and Tina again. Tina attempted to intervene and Grindelwald finally had enough of her meddling, throwing a car in her path. He then tracked down the Obscurial and found Newt and Tina close to calming him down. However, Picquery and the other Aurors showed up and attacked the Obscurial in an effort to kill it, appearing to obliviate it, enraging Grindelwald. It made Grindelwald go on a rant about the magic world having to hide away from the non-magic world and asked them to think about whether the law was protecting them or benefiting the muggles only. He no longer wanted them to cower in fear and by that point, Seraphina asked the other Aurors calm "Graves" down. The Aurors proved no match for Grindelwald, but Newt had worked out who he actually was and sent the Swooping Evil to catch Grindelwald off-guard and then with a spell, bound Grindelwald's hands. Newt then showed "Graves" true face with another spell, and they found out that Grindelwald had in fact impersonated Graves. Grindelwald was then led away, saying to Newt shall "we die" a little. Newt had no idea what he meant by that, and Grindelwald would be locked up. However, a few months later, Grindelwald escaped. At one point, Grindelwald founded Nurmengard, a home base and prison for enemies. Defeat Grindelwald's war being international meant he spent less attention on Britain in particular and focused on a much bigger picture. It also meant that he avoided any kind of confrontation with Dumbledore who was attempting to avoid Grindelwald anyway. It led to rumours that they both had a fear of each other's power. He had spent years finding ways around people's calls to confront Grindelwald, since many people thought only he had the power to defeat him. Dumbledore later claimed that he avoided Grindelwald because he was afraid that Grindelwald knew which one of them killed Ariana. Eventually, people's demands became too much and he had to track Grindelwald down. It was then 1945, and the two engaged in a confrontational duel of legendary proportions that eye-witnesses claimed was an incredible duel matched by none other in history. Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald even when Grindelwald owned the Elder Wand. The wand switched loyalty to Dumbledore but even he later admitted that he was only a "shade more skilful" than Grindelwald. The defeat of Grindelwald was a huge event and turning point for the magic world. Death Grindelwald was imprisoned for life in Nurmengard, the prison he had invented. About 53 years later, Grindelwald woke up and found he was no longer alone in the cell. Voldemort (a new Dark wizard gaining power in the Second Wizarding War) wanted to find the Deathly Hallows and broke in, demanding Grindelwald tell him the location of the Elder Wand. Grindelwald was expecting Voldemort to show up eventually but was unafraid of him. He had nothing but contempt for Voldemort and found he had a lack of knowledge of the Deathly Hallows. He laughed at him when he demanded he tell him the location, saying he would never win the Elder Wand. It enraged Voldemort and he killed Grindelwald with the Killing Curse. Legacy The memory of Grindelwald's crimes continued to affect people many decades later. He had killed many people to the point that the sign of the Deathly Hallows became very connected with him and people found it wrong to bear it, even when it had nothing to do with Grindelwald for them. It appears that Grindelwald was once found to be cool by later pupils of Durmstrang, who carved the Deathly Hallows sign they found made by Grindelwald in a wall thinking it made them look powerful. However, pupils who had family killed by Grindelwald would teach them better not to do that. Grindelwald was never very powerful in Britain and the things he had done would be not be widely known but Grindelwald was however mentioned in many books. Appearance When he was younger, Grindelwald had golden blond hair, "handsome" and a "merry" look which made him look triumphant and that he loved trickery. He had blue eyes. By the time he was killed, he was an old man with a frail, skeletal form and skull. He had sunken eyes, wrinkled cheeks, and the majority of Grindelwald's teeth had fallen out. Character Notes and sources Category:Characters Category:Durmstrang Students